The Hacker

Timex
Sinclair

Newsletter dedicated to the Sinclair family of ‘computing

COMDEX
coming to Vegas
2 Nov. 13-17, 1989

“the HACKER’ is an official publication
of the Timex/Sinclair User Group of
Las Vegas-a non profit, educational
organization. Subscription to the
"HACKER" is $15.00 per year (12
issues) and includes membership to
TSUG of LV. Piease remit to:

One of the biggest computer shows

a Ralph Hammer(treasurer) = aver to hit the United States, is about
eae a 0 to descend upon the Southwest

7 desert. With over 1,700 domestic and

international exhibitors to answer

S GET TOGET your questions and demonstrate new

Nov. 19, 1989 ane 1- 3 pm. products, the five, full, fun packed

PE SIar 3-4 pm. days can boggle ones mind as to what

M the public is WELCOME

is best and not best for their systems.

And also you can get a sneak -peak
into the future of all the new toys for
the computer minded enthusiasts as
well as the tons of new programs and

Meetings are heic on the third
Sunday of each month and include
a light buffet lunch for members &
guests. The meetings are heid at:

2345 Moorpark Way, games for these newest inventions
Henderson, NV 89014 for keyboard minded wizards.
BOARD of DIRECTORS: The projected attendence is
CHRIS FENN------------- 641-4082 expected to reach over 120,000 with
RALPH HAMMER-------- 649-4127 exhibits at eight locations (talk about
STEVE SA WCHUK-------- 451-6676 a traffic jam). This is one show I

CONTRIBUTING STAFF. Wontmiss. See you there...

a STEVE SAWCHUK----- EDITOR IN CHIEF QUOTE-OF THE MONTH
RALPH HAMMER------ CO-EDITOR os ae
CHRIS FENN---------- ART DIRECTOR gars genie aie
AMY DICKINSON----- CIRCULATION MGR.

COMPUTER

VIRUS SCAN
NOW

AVAILABLE

IBM has announced that it is
making available a program that
checks for viruses in PC's responding
in part to customer worries about the
rash of attacks. The virus scares have
caused more panic within the PC
world than Orson Wells did in 1938
on the radio.

News reports about the
Datacrime virus, which will release
its deadly virus after Oct. 12th. has
caused widespread alarm even
though experts say that it it rare and
only a small amount of PC's will be
hit and/or harmed.

IBM said its IBM Virus
Scanning Program for computers

that run Microsoft Corp.'s DOS
based-layer software would spot
three strains of the Datacrime virus
as Well as more common viruses that
go by such names as the Jerusalem,
Lehigh, Bouncing Ball, Cascade
and Brain. The program is available
for $35 directly from IBM or from
dealers, marketing reps., and
remarketers. The program will detect
but not eradicate viruses. Some
other say they have programs
available, but they are not too
reliable states IBM.

Art Gilbert, IBM's manager of
secure systems industry support,
states that “ installing a virus
checker is not a substitute for
safe-computing practices such
as making back-up copies and
being cautious about software of
unkown origin.”

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As promised last month, here
are the remaining six Bulletin Board
Manners to better your BBS
etiquette.

7. Don't go out of your way to
make rude observations like Gee,
this system is sure slow. Every BBS is
a trade- off of features. You can
safely assume that if someone is
running a particular brand of
software, that he is either happy
with it or he'll decide to find another
system he likes better. It does no one
any good when you make rude
comments about something that you
perceive to be a flaw when it is
running the way the SYSOP wants it
to. A constructive criticism is
somewhat more welcome. If you
have an alternative method that
seems to make good sense, then run
it up the flagpole.

8. When leaving messages on
systems which will allow private
messages, stop and ask yourself
whether itis really necessary to
make it private. Unless there is some
particular reason that everyone
shouldn't know what you are saying,
don't make it private. We don't call
them PUBLIC bulletin boards for
nothing. It is very irritating to other
callers when there are huge blank

spots in the message base that they
can't read.

9. If your favorite BBS has a time
limit, observe it. If it doesn't, seta
time limit for yourself and abide by
it instead. Don't tie up the system as
a new user just so that you can
download its list of other BBS. There
is probably very little that is more
annoying to any SYSOP than to have
his board completely passed over by
you on your way to another board.

10. Have the common courtesy to
pay attention to what passes in front
of your face. When a BBS displays
your name and asks if this is you,
don't say yes when you can see
perfectly well that it is mispelled.
Also, don't start asking questions
about simple operation of a system
untill you have thoroughly read all of
the instructions that are available to
you. I assure you that it isn't any fun
to answer a question for the
thousandth time when the answer is
plainly displayed in the system
bulletins or the system instruction
section. Use some common sense
when you ask your questions. The
person who said "There's no such
thing as a stupid question” has never
run a BBS.

11. Don't be personally abusive. It
doesn't matter whether you like a
SYSOP or think he's a jerk. The fact
remains that he has a large
investment in making his system
available, usually out of the goodness
of his heart. If you don't like a SYSOP
or his system, just remember that
you can change the channel any time
you want. Besides, whether you are
aware of it or not, if you make

yourself enough of an annoyance to
any SYSOP, he can take the time to
trace you down and make your life,
or that of you parents if you are a
younger person, miserable.

12. Keep firmly in mind that you
are a guest on any BBS you happen to
call. Don't think of logging on as one
of your basic human rights. Every
person that has ever puta computer
system online for the use of other
people has spent a lot of time and
money to do so. While he doesn't
expect nonstop pats on the back, it
seems reasonable that he should at
least be able to expect fair treatment
from his callers. This includes
following any of the rules of the
system he has laid out without
grumping about it. Every SYSOP has
his own idea of how he wants his
system to run. It is really none of
your business why he wants to run it

the way he does. Your business is to
either abide by what he says, or call
some other BBS or start your own
BBS.

KEHEEKKKKKKEK KK

I hope you enjoyed reading the
general points of BBS etiquette as
much as I did. If we all were to
practice at least 75% of the 12, we
would really keep all the SYSOP’s
happy. We will do our best.

Don't quote me as I may be wrong,
but I think we have four PCUG
members that have their own BBS'es
on line. We have Doug Crowe with
RAIDERS, James Theivagt with
TECH-ONE, Theresa Heisserman with
WEEKEND HUDDLE and our newest
Allen Woolley with FIFTH of
FIRTH. Last issue we gave Allen a

plug with his new board. I hope you
all have logged on to give ita try.
Allen says that his ZOOM modem is
still back ordered and may getitina
couple of weeks or so. Probably will
have it hooked up by the time you
read this. I guess some users have
had a hard time getting on at 2400. I

for one have to use 300 baud to get |

on so I havn't done much on it, as
you know, 300 can be nerve racking
when you are trying to upload or
download. Hope it comes in soon.

This month, I will give Theresa a
plug on her WEEKEND HUDDLE board.
It is in operation 24 hours a day at
386-1984 and runs at 3/12/2400,
but I think she says 2400 doesn't
always connect. She has a nice Yellow
Pages section for those who want to
buy and sell. Be sure you check there
first if you need something. I even
have my CGA monitor and color card
listed. Also she carrys a listing of
upcoming computer Swap Meets in
Southern Calif. Her and Keith are
always going to them, so if you need
something special, let her know and
she will check it out for you. Keith
got his VGA monitor and VGA card
from one. The board supports only
IBM programs as she checks them for
VIRUS's. I don't blame her. As you
know she lost a hard drive a while
back. So give her board a try and get
some good discussions going. She
welcomes all good uploads.

Well, DAWN SAWCHUK finally got
her 2400 baud modem she has
always wanted, but she also got her
dream machine, a 386 to run it. Boy,
some people will do anything to get
on a BBS. Joe from NELLIS

2

COMPUTERS fixed her up with

a beautiful computer and VGA
monitor plus all the extra

frills. OK Dawn, lets burn up
some phone lines and keep
those boards busy. Upload us
some good programs.

Carl Naugle gave me a nice article
called BITS,BAUD RATE, and BPS
which is a copyrighted article from
The Boston Computer Society's
ONLINE CONNECTION Newsletter.
It is rather long and is a very
informative article about Modems. I

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think the information would take the
mystery out of Modem speeds. |
even learned something when I read
it. Call me at 457-0945 or catch me
at a meeting.

Well, it is getting close to ALF time
on TV, and ALF takes precidence
over this keyboard so I will close this
column for now. Have fun on the
boards and remember to practice
your etiquette at every session. Lets
get some more participation. Till next
month, keep the phones busy. BYE!!

e senta

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Prercrorrrrerrreerrercrerrrerrrr cer

JOHN
ANDERSON,
POPULAR

MAC EDITOR,
DIES IN
CALIFORNIA QUAKE

On October 17, minutes after
leaving Macromind, a software
company located on Townsend Street
near Sixth in San Francisco, Joan
Anderson, known to his friends
as “JJ,” was killed by falling bricks
from a building which collapsed
during the earthquake. Also killed
was Derek Van Alstyne,
assistant technical editor at
MacUser magazine.

Anderson, a veteran computer
industry reporter previously with
Creative Computing and
Computer Shopper, was senior
editor in electronic publishing at
MacUser magazine at the time of his
death at age 33.

Anderson, whose home was in
Boulder Creek, California, leaves
behind his wife and two small
children and his parents in New
Jersey.

Calls of sympathy have been
coming into their Foster City,
California MacUser offices from all
over the country. Expressing the
views of many of his friends at the
magazine. "He had a fabulous
computer mind, just a wonderful
personality. He was liked by every
person on this staff.”

Ziff Communications is in the
process of setting up a memorial
fund for contributions to Anderson's
family. A memorial service is being
planned for Anderson on a beach
somewhere, since he was always an
avid fan of kites, and he “loved to go
to the beach.”

Derek van Alstyne, 22,
assistant technical editor, was
aiso killed in the earthquake. He
is described as a young, brilliant
computer person who was very
enthusiastic about his job, and who
came to the Bay Area from Colorado.
No further information about his
background was available at press
time.

editors note: The “HACKER”
wishes at this time to express
their deepest sympathy to the
families of John Anderson and
Derek van Alstyne. Their
computer reporting will be
greatly missed by all.

ZIGGY

HAVE YOu GETING
FIX THIS YOURSELF iss

NOW, HERE'S Sie
SOMETHING s

The Oct. issue of the Seattle Area
Timex Users Group newsletter
(S.W.Y.M.) had a very well put
article entitled “What To Do With
All Those TIMEXs?~. In fact, I
thought it being so good, I feel it
should be read by all who at one
time or another, had a
TIMEX/SINCLAIR. Think about this
as you read on.

As PC-compatable machines
continue their price decline, some of
us, apparently needing more
complexity in their lives, are making
the jump to the Land of Blue. Some of
us have long-since done this.

Once the Smurf conversion is fully
ingrained, the tendency is to ignore,
maybe even deny, the humble
beginnings from which we arose.
Namely the Sinclair or Timex/Sinclair
computers.

SO you got yourself a 640K of RAM,
an 80MB hard drive, a couple of
1.2MB floppy drives, an HP LaserJet
printer, a Hayes 2400 baud modem
and all the versions of DBASE and
Wordstar you could ask for! How
many inches of dust are you going to
let settle onto your loyal T/S
equipment, before they're used as
planters? Before this nadir of neglect
occures, please consider the
following:

If you have children or
grandchildren , give some thought to

easing them into computer literacy
with those old 1000's, 1500's and
2068's. You have the computers and
the expertise to pull this off quite
nicely. There are a lot worse things to
pass on to the next generation.

For a more focused application,
think about turning that TS1000
into a dedicated controller of
something. How about a smart
home monitor/burglar alarm? It
doesn't take a whole lot of
sophistication for it. Add an I/O
board, a handful of sensors and a
smidegeon of machine code and there
you are! This could even be done on
a 2K machine, without that wobbly
RAM pack. Or, once your MC is
perfected, perhaps even expanded
past the 2K point, you may want to
discard that RAM chip, as well as the
8K ROM and replace that with a
EPROM of your program! Remember,
this is now a dedicated CPU. It will do
any one thing you want, faithfully.

The point is, that an unused
computer is a terrible waste of
resourses. You can keep on data
basing, word processing and all those
wonderful things on your IBM clone,
if you want, but if you need or want
a long-term function that would
seriously tie up the PC, pull up the
plants growing out of the dust on
your TIMEXs and turn those
machines into something useful. If
you need a doorstop, go buy a
doorstop. Use the Timex for
something else.

AMSTRAD
BLAMED
FOR
AUSTRALINA
DEALER
CRASH

The owner of South Australia’s
largest Amstrad dealership has
blamed Amstrad for the collapse of
his company.

Hans Kroonenburg of Everything
Computer said that the high failure
rate of Amstrad high-end PCs caused
his company to go broke, and he
would now have to sell his Adelaide
home to pay off debts. “We had a
failure rate of 90 percent, with
some machines coming back five
times. The associated support-costs
put us under,” he said.

“Amstrad executives advised
us they were going to recall all
the 286s but nothing happened.
They toid me the machines were
faulty four months ago,”
Kroonenburg said he was taking legal
advice as to whether he has the right
to sue Amstrad.

The Australian sales and
marketing director of Amstrad,
Bordan Tkachuk, said there were
no grounds on which Kroonenburg
could take legal action and said the
business failure was just the
beginning of many small company
collapses due to a softening of the
local PC market.

DATAbase SOFTWARE
RELEASES NEW
MINI-OFFICE

VERSION FOR AMSTRAD

Database Software will release
Mini Office Professional, an
enhanced version of its
phenomenally successful integrated
software package for the PC, for the
Amstrad PCW series, this week. The
package will retail for UKP 39-95.

To date, Mini Office Professional
has notched up sales of 50,000
units. The package consists of five
modules - word processor,
spreadsheet, database, graphics and
communications. The Amstrad PCW
version excludes the
speli-checker and thesaurus
seen on Mini Office Professional Plus,
the latest version of the PC package,
but includes a free book worth
UKP 11-95, plus a rewritten
user guide.

The book - All in one business
computing’ by John Hughes -
explains how to get the most out of
Mini Office Professional. The
spell-checker and thesaurus modules
are available to Amstrad PCW users
as an UKP 10 optional extra. “Mini
Office is a time

proven package,” said Chris Payne,
Database Software's marketing
manager. “And with the
enhancements, particularly the book,
it provides excellent value for money
for PCW users,” he added.

COMEDIAN
THINKS 288
NOT SO

FUNNY

17 Oct 89 From: Teller To: All SEE
ALSO *45 Subj: Hello
Hi, gang,

I am a new visitor. My name is

Teller, and I am 1/2 the
comedy /(magic?) team of Penn &
Teller. I don't have a lot of problems
with my new machine yet, .
but do have a couple of questions for
any sages in the electronic world:

1. Is there a program for
translating PipeDream to
WordPerfect? ( I like the fact that
these are both program-names with
Capital letters in the middle of the
words.)

2. I am in the New York City
area. Are there other users nearby?
And especially, are there 288
dealers, repair people, etc. nearby?

3. I will be using my 288
exclusively for words. I don't need
all the spreadsheet functions. Is
there any way to turn them off
permanently?

(I mean, so I don't have to turn
them off every time I call up
PipeDream)

cordially,
TELLER

Here are some
more bits of
wisdom from the
collection of
Murphy speaks

a y out on system laws

& rules. courtsy of the Las Vegas
PC users group.

If the input editor has been
designed to reject bad input, an
ingenious idiot will discover a way to
get bad data past it.

HEREKEX EK XX

corollary: Contracts and warranties

are void upon payment of invoice.
KEEREREKERKK XX

If it jams, force it. If it breaks, it

needed replacing anyway.
REKKEREKKKXK
If there is an easier way, you

won't see it.
RK KR KKK KK KK EE K

BERRY'S WORLD

COMPUTER
TRAINING
COURSE
FORMERLY
VJOHUNNYS LEMONADE \

a s :

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